Along Came A Spider (2001)

April 6, 2001

FILM REVIEW; Weaving an Intricate Web To Trap a Wily Kidnapper

By By ELVIS MITCHELL

Published: April 6, 2001

''I have never seen a man work so hard at being busy,'' Vickie (Anna Maria Horsford) says to Dr. Alex Cross (Morgan Freeman), the meticulous forensic psychologist slaving away at distracting himself in ''Along Came a Spider.'' Vickie's remark could serve as an assessment of this overplotted, hollow thriller, which crams in so much exposition that characters speak in fetid hunks for what seems like minutes at a time. And Vickie, a minor figure who has some unexplained relationship with Cross, disappears after delivering that line.

Usually, part of the fun of a genre picture is seeing actors tear off a piece of script with their teeth and offer a juicy piece of characterization. This movie departs from that enjoyable tradition, for there are no characters in ''Spider.'' It represents Paramount's single-minded focus on the moneyed exploitation picture, that studio's bread and butter, with tributes to the ridiculous like ''The General's Daughter,'' ''Double Jeopardy'' and ''Kiss the Girls.'' (''Spider'' is its follow-up, from another of James Patterson's novels.) Not only has the studio whittled these movies down to haiku, but it's also a haiku with only two lines. This diminution makes ''Spider'' trash adjusted for inflation. ''Spider'' brings back Mr. Freeman as Cross, the thoughtful investigator who is dragged into impossibly involved cases when he's at his worst. This time Cross is trying to recover from a botched undercover operation that took the life of his partner in a paroxysm of second-rate computer graphic effects. ''A damaged cop shouldering some heavy baggage,'' says the F.B.I. Agent McArthur (Dylan Baker) by way of description.

Cross is wrested from his knot of self-pity by Gary Soneji (Michael Wincott), a kidnapper who is one of those archvillains with way too much money and free time on their hands. Soneji is the Bruce Wayne of kidnappers; his houseboat has more high-tech gadgets than the Batcave.

Cross is soon knee deep in a high-profile kidnapping case. Soneji has abducted a senator's daughter from her private school, a crime he is determined to make as big as the Lindbergh case. Jezzie Flanagan (Monica Potter), the Secret Service agent on whose watch the crime took place, pushes herself into Cross's investigation.

It seems that Secret Service agents, working at a private school in the Washington area where both a senator's daughter and the son of the Russian president are in attendance, never made a very thorough background check on Soneji, a teacher at the school. Nor did they look very closely at his face: he wears a latex mask so obvious you expect a joke to be made about it. (Perhaps the Secret Service was intimidated by his office, a baronial study with a raging fireplace and antique furniture; it could be from an Architectural Digest spread on the Evil Genius's study.) But such goodies are what keep ''Spider'' in a rarefied group of films -- the ''if these characters are so smart, how did they get stuck in this picture?'' club.

But ''Spider'' couldn't be better served than it is by Mr. Freeman, whose prickly smarts and silken impatience bring believability to a classless, underdeveloped thriller. Even in the climactic scene, in which the hero typically embroiders the crowning line with mocking bravado, Mr. Freeman plays it close to the vest. He shows the kind of politesse and modesty not endemic to genre pictures. At 63, he is in fighting trim; he looks great, with tufts of gray peeking through on his temples and around his full hairline. It's invigorating to see an African-American actor of his age -- a man who probably spent his youth waiting around for Sidney Poitier to turn down work -- take the screen and hold it through sheer force of talent and underplayed concentration.

Still, he is wasted in this impersonal, barely ept thriller. Sadder still, it was directed by Lee Tamahori, whose fresh ''Once Were Warriors'' was all insolent temperament. Shackled to this by-the-numbers picture, all he can do is keep things in focus. But in addition to Mr. Freeman, ''Along Came a Spider'' is full of talents -- Ms. Potter, Mr. Wincott, with his eloquent croak of a voice -- sorely underused.

The film has one good scene, in which Soneji makes a crack using the old United Negro College Fund motto, and Cross's face is creased by a rueful smile. Mr. Tamahori's penchant for using multiple actors to build tension in the same shot is utilized here. (It's also the only acknowledgment of African-Americans in a movie set in the Washington area.) Otherwise, the closest the movie comes to inventiveness is to end in a barn instead of a warehouse.

''Along Came a Spider'' is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian) for some seamy and explicit dialogue and the kind of gunplay and violence standard in the genre.

ALONG CAME A SPIDER

Directed by Lee Tamahori; written by Marc Moss, based on the novel by James Patterson; director of photography, Matthew F. Leonetti; edited by Neil Travis; music by Jerry Goldsmith; production designer, Ida Random; produced by David Brown and Joe Wizan; released by Paramount Pictures. Running time: 115 minutes. This film is rated R.